[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 137 (Monday, July 19, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38668-38670]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-18356]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-6379-7; Docket No. A-99-23]
Petition to Delist Methanol From the List of Hazardous Air
Pollutants
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of receipt of a complete petition.
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SUMMARY: This notice announces the receipt of a complete petition from
the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) requesting EPA to
remove the chemical methanol (CAS No. 67-56-1) from the list of
hazardous air pollutants HAPs) contained in section 112(b)(1) of the
1990 Clean Air Act (Act). We have determined that the AF&PA's original
petition submittal dated March 8, 1996 and the supplemental materials
provided by AF&PA through February 18, 1999 will support an assessment
of the human health impacts associated with people living in the
vicinity of facilities emitting methanol. In addition, the data
submitted by AF&PA will support an assessment of the environmental
impacts associated with
[[Page 38669]]
emissions of methanol to the ambient air and deposited onto soil or
water. Consequently, we have concluded that AF&PA's petition is
complete as of February 18, 1999, the date of the last supplement, and
is ready for public comment and the technical review phase of our
delist petition evaluation process.
This notice invites the public to comment on the petition and to
provide additional data, beyond that filed in the petition, on sources,
emissions, exposure, health effects and environmental impacts
associated with methanol that may be relevant to our technical review.
DATES: Comments and additional data will be accepted if received on or
before August 18, 1999.
ADDRESSES:
Documents
A copy of the complete petition is contained in a docket available
at the Air and Radiation Docket and Information Office, 401 M Street
SW, Room M-1500 (6102), Waterside Mall, Washington DC 20460. The docket
number for this action is A-99-23. The docket is an organized file of
all the information received and considered in making the decision on
the completeness of AF&PA's petition. The main purpose of the docket is
to allow you to readily identify and locate documents that record the
process we followed in making our decision. You may inspect the
petition and copy it for offsite review between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.
EST, Monday through Friday. A reasonable fee may be charged for
copying.
Comments and Data Submissions
Comments and additional data should be submitted (in duplicate if
possible) to: The Docket Clerk, Air and Radiation Docket and
Information Office, 401 M Street SW, Room M-1500 (Mail Code 6102),
Waterside Mall, Washington DC 20460.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Chuck French, Emission Standards
Division (MD-13), Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711,
telephone (919) 541-0467, electronic mail address:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
A. What Is the List of Hazardous Air Pollutants?
Hazardous air pollutants include a wide variety of organic and
inorganic substances released from large and small industrial
operations, fossil fuel combustion, gasoline and diesel-powered
vehicles, and many other sources. The HAPs have been associated with a
wide variety of adverse health effects, including cancer, neurological
effects, reproductive effects, and developmental effects. The health
effects associated with the various HAPs may differ depending upon the
toxicity of the individual HAP and the particular circumstances of
exposure, such as the amount of chemical present, the length of time a
person is exposed, and the stage in life of the person when the
exposure occurs. The list of HAPs, which includes methanol, can be
found in section 112(b)(1) of the Act. The HAPs list provides the basis
for research, regulation, and other related EPA activities under
section 112 of the Act.
B. What Is a HAP Delist Petition?
A HAP delist petition is a formal request to the EPA from an
individual or group to remove a specific HAP from the HAPs list. The
removal of a HAP from the list eliminates it from consideration in
EPA's program to promulgate national, technology-based emissions
control standards. This technology-based standards program is commonly
referred to as the maximum achievable control technology (MACT)
program.
Petitions to add or delete chemicals from the HAPs list are allowed
under section 112(b)(3)(A) of the Act. The Act specifies that any
person may petition the Administrator to modify, by addition or
deletion, the list of HAPs, and the EPA Administrator is required to
either grant or deny a petition to delist a specific HAP within 18
months of the receipt of a complete petition.
To delete a substance from the HAPs list, section 112(b)(3)(C)
requires that the petitioner must provide adequate data on the health
and environmental effects of the substance to determine that emissions,
ambient concentrations, and bio-accumulation or deposition of the
substance may not reasonably be anticipated to cause any adverse
effects to human health or adverse environmental effects.
C. How Does EPA Review a Petition To Delist a HAP?
The petition review process proceeds in two phases: a completeness
determination and a technical review. During the completeness
determination, we conduct a broad review of the petition to determine
whether or not all the necessary subject areas are addressed and
whether reasonable information and analyses are presented for each of
these subject areas. Once the petition is determined to be complete, we
place a notice of receipt of a complete petition in the Federal
Register. That Federal Register notice announces a public comment
period on the petition and starts the technical review phase of our
decision-making process. The technical review involves a more thorough
scientific review of the petition to determine whether the data,
analyses, interpretations, and conclusions in the petition are
appropriate and technically sound. The technical review will also
determine whether or not the petition satisfies the necessary
requirements of section 112(b)(3)(C) and adequately supports a decision
to delist the HAP. All comments and data submitted during the public
comment period are considered during the technical review.
D. How Is the Decision To Delist a HAP Made?
The decision to either grant or deny a petition is made after a
comprehensive technical review of both the petition and the information
received from the public to determine whether the petition satisfies
the requirements of section 112(b)(3)(C) of the Act. If the
Administrator decides to grant a petition, a notice of proposed
rulemaking is published in the Federal Register. That notice proposes a
modification of the HAPs list and presents the reasoning for doing so.
However, if the Administrator decides to deny a petition, a notice
setting forth an explanation of the reasons for denial will be
published instead. A notice of denial constitutes final Agency action
of nationwide scope and applicability and is subject to judicial review
as provided in section 307(b) of the Act.
II. Completeness Determination and Request for Public Comment
On March 8, 1996, we received a petition from the AF&PA to remove
methanol (methyl alcohol, methyl hydroxide, wood alcohol, wood spirit)
(CAS No. 67-56-1) from the HAPs list. The petition was presented on
behalf of the producers and consumers of methanol in the United States.
After our initial review of the petition, we determined that additional
information was needed on estimated ambient air concentrations of
methanol as well as on the derivation of the safe exposure level (SEL)
for methanol. The petitioner submitted several additional documents in
1997 and early 1998 to address the information gaps. After further
review, we determined that the additional documents that AF&PA
submitted
[[Page 38670]]
improved the petition, but that there were still information gaps,
particularly in the identification of sources, exposure modeling
assessment, and atmospheric chemistry. The petitioner submitted
additional documents in 1998 and early 1999 to address these remaining
information gaps.
After reviewing all of the supplemental information, we have now
determined that the essential subject areas have been addressed and
that the petition is complete and ready for technical review. The
AF&PA's last supplement which occurred February 18, 1999 marked the
start of the 18 months decision period. Today's notice initiates our
comprehensive technical review of the petition and invites public
comment on the substance of the petition as described above.
III. Description of the Petition
The complete petition provided by AF&PA contains the following
information:
A. Background data on methanol, including chemical and physical
properties data and production and use data.
B. A review of available scientific literature documenting
human, animal, in vitro, and other toxicity studies concerning
methanol, with copies of the relevant literature citations.
C. A review of available scientific literature concerning
environmental effects of methanol, with copies of the relevant
literature citations.
D. An assessment of the human heath and environmental effects of
methanol including AF&PA's proposed calculation of the air
inhalation SEL. The petition asserts that the proposed SEL is a
quantitative estimate of an inhalation exposure to humans that is
likely to be without appreciable risk of adverse impacts over a
lifetime.
E. A characterization of the fate of methanol emitted to the
atmosphere including atmospheric residence time, solubility,
information on atmospheric transformations, and potential
degradation or transformation products.
F. A screening assessment to demonstrate that only sources
emitting greater than 500 tons per year (tpy) have a theoretical
possibility of exceeding the SEL.
G. Estimated emissions of methanol for sources that emit greater
than 500 tpy of methanol derived from the toxic release inventory
(TRI), as well as other data sources such as State air toxics
emissions inventories. The TRI is an emissions inventory database
developed under section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community
Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) of 1986.
H. Tiered air dispersion modeling that provides estimates of the
ambient concentrations of methanol adjacent to facilities that emit
over 500 tpy of methanol and the potential human exposures to
methanol due to these emissions. Tiered modeling involves the use of
successive modeling techniques to move from conservative ``worst
case'' estimates of the ambient concentrations of a substance
emitted from a source toward more realistic site specific estimates
of the ambient concentrations.
I. Characterization of the potential exposures and risks from
methanol to human health and the environment.
The petition describes methanol as a simple alcohol containing one
carbon atom. Methanol is reported to occur naturally as an emission
resulting from metabolism in vegetation, microorganisms, and insects.
It has also been found in volcanic gases. Methanol is produced during
the natural biodegradation of organic wastes of all kinds, including
sewage and wastewater sludge, by microorganisms normally found in the
environment.
In the original petition submittal (dated March 8, 1996), it is
stated that based on the 1993 TRI, 2,303 facilities reported emissions
of methanol for a total of 86,155 tons of methanol emitted to the air
in the United States in 1993. Based on the 1993 TRI data, the paper and
allied products industry accounted for about 52 percent of the methanol
emissions. The next largest source category was the chemical and allied
products industry which accounted for 25 percent of the methanol
emissions. Six facilities reported emissions over 1,000 tpy, 195
facilities reported emissions over 100 tpy and 828 facilities reported
emissions over 10 tpy. Subsequent petition submittals present emissions
estimates based on more recent data sources (e.g., the 1995 TRI) for
sources emitting greater than 500 tpy of methanol.
The petition presents the derivation of a SEL of 83 milligrams of
methanol per cubic meter of air (i.e., 83 mg/m3). The
petitioner asserts that exposures below this SEL can be expected to
produce no potential adverse human effects from lifetime inhalation
exposures. The petition claims the SEL is based on standard EPA
methodology, which incorporates the identification of the most
sensitive toxic endpoint and the corresponding no-observable-adverse-
effect-level (NOAEL) (in this case an exposure level of 1,300 mg/
m3 for pregnant mice), adjustment of the NOAEL from an
animal exposure concentration to an equivalent human exposure
concentration, and application of appropriate uncertainty factors. To
determine the human equivalent concentration of methanol, the petition
used the NOAEL derived from the mouse study and converted it to a
human-equivalent NOAEL following EPA guidelines by multiplying the
animal species NOAEL by the ratio of a breathing rate divided by the
body weight of the animal species to the same parameters for humans.
The human-equivalent NOAEL, along with uncertainty factors, was then
used to determine the SEL.
The petition asserts that inhalation is the only significant route
of human exposure to methanol emissions. Since methanol rapidly
biodegrades and volatilizes in water, it is highly unlikely that humans
are exposed to significant amounts of methanol through fallout or
impaction upon soils or directly upon water bodies. Using the TRI data
as input in a tiered air dispersion modeling approach, the petition
develops estimates of the maximum annual and 24-hour concentrations
anticipated to occur at the boundaries of facilities known to emit
methanol in excess of 500 tpy. The maximum predicted 24-hour
concentration for any of these facilities was about 7.5 mg/
m3. After comparing the estimated exposure levels to the
SEL, the AF&PA concludes that concentrations of methanol anticipated to
occur due to emissions from these sources cannot reasonably be
anticipated to cause either acute or chronic adverse health effects to
people living nearby these facilities.
The petition also provides data to support the AF&PA's position
that in the concentrations expected to occur in the environment,
methanol is nontoxic to plants and animals. It is readily degradable
through natural process and does not tend to accumulate in living
organism.
Dated: July 9, 1999.
Robert Perciasepe,
Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation.
[FR Doc. 99-18356 Filed 7-16-99; 8:45 am]
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